Articles

Shame on them. That’s really the only thing that goes through my mind when I think about the Northgate School Board after Monday night’s discussion regarding the coming financial insolvency of the district. Shame on them!

The purpose of this letter is to inform and encourage everyone who reads this to raise your voice to let your legislators know your thoughts about the repeal of our health care legislation. The Senate and the House of Representatives have voted to start dismantling the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA).

As in every tragedy that is covered by 24-hour news channels, Twitter, Facebook, the Vine, as well as by newspapers struggling to keep up, the information output following the bombing in Boston became repetitions, overwhelming, confusing, sometimes perfectly accurate, but often missed the voice of the average Bostonian living through days of fear and frustration.

However, such a voice could be found in former local resident Dawn Anderson.

In an e-mail to a friend who shares it with "The Citizen," she writes:

Lately, I have heard multiple comments of how the [Avalon] borough has gone downhill, and how the community isn’t the same. One particular comment was especially disheartening: “I can’t wait to move out of this ghetto.”

I attended the Bellevue Council meeting Tuesday evening and admitted to them that I haven't been paying attention to all of the issues for a while. I did, however, take the opportunity to request a bit more information about the Bayne Park skate plaza, which is currently under construction here. Yet another vote was taken at the meeting Tuesday to approve spending yet more of Bellevue taxpayers' money for that project.

This letter is in response to Madam President [Linda] Woshner's letter to the editor in the July 27 edition of The Citizen, where she attempts to clarify the recreational fire and grilling ordinance, which she and several members of council enacted into law. While I agree that we, as Bellevue citizens, should all grill responsibly, my question to Madam president, is "who was not grilling responsibly, that the council needed to spend borough residents’ tax money on an ordinance, that as I stated at the first meeting, was unenforceable?"

At around 8:30 p.m. this evening [July 2], I was stopped at the light at Brighton/Lincoln and witnessed a man in a small electric wheelchair trying to get up the sidewalk ramp at South Bryant/Lincoln Avenue. He had been riding down South Bryant in the street, and one of our police officers pulled up beside him and told him to ride on the sidewalk. He told the officer he would if he could get his chair up the small bump in the ramp. His chair was not one of the high powered types.

The officer did not get out of the car, but pulled away, leaving the man to struggle.

It takes courage, integrity, morals, and honesty to lead. I do not see this reflected in the current [Bellevue] administration. Yes, there are some borough council members who I admire and have been in contact with that I greatly appreciate and indeed do have the aforementioned qualities. But a few do not, and most notably the mayor does not.

Thursday, June 14, was Flag Day. Did the powers that be in Bellevue not have that day on their calendar? I’m sure there are a plethora of excuses and I don’t want to hear any of them. Our American flag not being displayed in our borough on Flag Day is inexcusable, period.

My husband and I traveled up north to Zelienople for breakfast. As you descend from the little hill into Zelie borough, those stars and stripes were there to greet. Yes, they were on every meter post in their brackets, like they used to be in Bellevue.

Over the past few years I've inquired of the lack of flags flown along our business district, to the disgrace of the condition of those flags that were displayed. And each time I spoke with someone on Bellevue Council regarding the same, I was assured that "by the next patriotic holiday" they will all be replaced and Bellevue will look brighter and better.

Editor:
It's not about campfires.
It is about a council that devotes time and resources to propose another ordinance that is not driven by the needs of the community. Council reasoning is unclear, but in absence of any other explanation beyond clichés, it appears that the proposed burning ordinance is a response to one or two chronic complainers to the detriment of many Bellevue residents.

Don’t often write these, but Saturday afternoon and evening, I had some faith restored in what I do everyday.

A group of residents who love and use the Avalon pool held a spaghetti dinner to help the borough defray some of the cost to operate the pool. All volunteers, they served almost 200 dinners, held a 38-basket silent auction, and a bake sale. The pasta and sauce were donated by a local restaurant, the fireman donated the hall, and all the money made will go to buying things to make summer at the pool a little more enjoyable.

The Property Tax Independence Act, House Bill 1776, was recently introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. HB 1776 eliminates school property taxes and replaces those taxes with funding from a single state source.

HB 1776 replaces school property taxes with a 1 percent increase in the state sales tax, a broadening of the sales tax base, and a 0.93 percent increase to the personal income tax. HB 1776 is a more fair and stable method of funding our schools.

I am writing in response to agree in part, and disagree in part with Jennifer Bett's letter. Ms. Bett is entirely correct when she says "The Ben Avon borough hall is a beautiful building with a great second floor hall…" We in Ben Avon are lucky to have such a beautiful, historic building.

My family has been in Bellevue for the past 50 years and last year one sibling moved out due to concern about the conditions in her neighborhood. I’ve lived here again for the last 11 years and care very much about Bellevue’s current challenges and its future. Truthfully, the main reason I read The Citizen every week is to hear what’s positive and to look for signs of hope that Bellevue will survive.

I would like to thank Tom Steiner for writing the article about the Emsworth Borough pylons preservation. I would also like to thank The Citizen for publishing the column.

These historic works of art mean so much for the identity of Emsworth Borough and the entire Route 65 corridor.

I also want to thank the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), The Pennsylvania Historical Society and the contractor Lane Construction for the thought and care that was used in preserving and moving the pylons to their new locations.

In his front page story last week ("History Restored," March 2, 2012), Tom Steiner appropriately stated "So often the road to progress includes demolishing the past." Let me flip that around and also point out that striving to preserve meaningful history is often perceived as obstructing progress. Mr. Steiner's story helps debunk that perception, and shows us that maybe improvement and preservation are not necessarily at odds, and in fact can be complementary.

I wanted to thank Connie Rankin for her article, "Rescue Me" (http://www.thecitizen.us/blog/rescue-me). She does a wonderful job of pointing out the dilemma that a lot of potential dog owners face when searching for the perfect match. Do I rescue, or do I find a breeder who has the type of dog I like most?

I wanted to take the time to say thank you to someone whose name I do not know. There are many others who want to say thank you to him/her also. They are the folks who have participated in the design, continuing development and construction of the Bellevue Dog Woods dog park.